Main content

Reason, numbers and Mr Spock

Do numbers help us think more rationally? Or can the most numerate of us still fall into traps?

Writer Julia Galef talks to Tim Harford about the role of numbers in helping us think more rationally, and what Star Trek鈥檚 Mr Spock can teach us about making predictions. Julia is author of The Scout Mindset, a book about how our attempts to be rational are often clouded or derailed by our human impulses, and the ways we can avoid these traps.

Producer: Nathan Gower

(Image: Leonard Nimoy as Mr Spock. Credit: Bettmann/Contributor via Getty Images)

Release date:

Available now

9 minutes

Podcast